A sketch show about rejection, Sorry Sorry Sorry Very Sorry is perfectly timed to coincide with summer internship application season and the constant driftwood of rejection emails washing up on the shore of my inbox. The show consists of some truly very funny moments punctuated by a lot of sketches that fall quite flat, which won’t impress people attracted to the show by the Footlights name and attendant reputation.

“A number of obstacles prevent the evening from achieving its full comedic potential”

This is not to say that Sorry… isn’t funny. Humour is subjective, and nothing will be to everybody’s tastes. But there are a number of obstacles that prevent the evening from achieving its full comedic potential for anyone. Some jokes felt like things an audience of students would have heard before, and the show didn’t do more than simply restating them. It seems it doesn’t know its own audience: “I’m in your walls” as a punchline strikes me as something most people with a Twitter account would by now be tired of. There are also two references to gluten-free food, which is two too many for a joke that only really hits for the middle-aged — like the Five Go Gluten-Free novel I keep seeing in Waterstones.

The writing is not consistently strong — a number of sketches go on aimlessly without providing many laughs, with the punchline happening in the middle and the sketch then slowly petering out. The jokes themselves are not always very clever: a lot of the punchlines are pretty straightforward and sometimes lack a real buildup. On the other hand, the show is truly hilarious when it cleverly wrings the most it possibly can out of an idea, surprising its audience. A high point sees auditions for the role of “Young Harry”, a sketch which becomes absurdly long as Prince Harry, Harry Potter, Harry Styles, and yet more Harrys are satirised.

Not all the extended bits work - quite a lot of the content seemed like it would be funny only if you knew the cast members personally. When they all perform a dance sequence before miming running up a hill (set to Running Up That Hill), it would be hilarious for the same reason that seeing your mates act in a school play is funny. I just don’t think this translates well to a general audience and it seemed a cheap way to get laughs. The sketch relies on deriving joy from seeing one’s friends contorting themselves into shapes, not because of any clever conceit of the writing.

Nonetheless, some cast members have a lot of potential. Daniel Patten has an excellent sense of comic timing and manages entirely deadpan delivery during some of the most absurd moments in the show. Jess Wilson’s expert physical comedy was a joy to watch as she exerts incredible control over her movements. Patten and Wilson consistently provided a comic foil to the other cast members, in particular Ella Scott’s lively performance, making their scenes together strong. Unfortunately not all cast members get an equal chance to shine. Kitty Ford especially doesn’t have a major role in any sketch, and whilst both songs she performs are funny, the first (introduced as a song about coming out) seemed too sincere to gel well with the rest of the show’s tone.

The show would benefit from having more breathing room between scenes - letting the audience sit with the sketches for longer might have improved the tempo of the show and allowed some jokes to settle more. Some of the scene-transition music choices felt hamfisted and sometimes undermined more subtle comic moments, like Under The Sea playing after an ocean-themed scene. It felt like the directors didn’t trust the audience enough to understand the sketches otherwise, which is an unfortunate and unintentional effect.

Sorry Sorry Sorry Very Sorry is by no means a bad show — but its best parts make you wish that the rest was better executed.